Words and politicsWhenever the political campaigns burst upon us, social-studies education generally suffers another setback. In education, the truly good teachers tend to emphasize reason, objectivity and exact definitions in aiding students in their pursuit of truth and learning. In contrast, it appears politicians discard reason, objectivity and exact definition in their pursuit of office. Oftentimes it seems they are not concerned with telling the truth but...

Decide alcohol sales at the pollsThe issue of alcohol sales in Arkansas has been highly debated dating back to the days when we were still a territory. And this election day, Arkansas voters will be asked to weigh in again on this debate. Issue 4 is a citizen-led initiative which will appear on the November ballot. It is titled “The Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Amendment” and would amend the Arkansas Constitution by declaring the manufacture, sale, distribution and transportat...

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Arkansas House of RepresentativesThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Fueling economic enginesLITTLE ROCK — In Arkansas, economic development manifests itself in many ways. In the past 10 days, we’ve seen a constant stream of announcements that will bring good jobs and new opportunities to our state. Each of these also illustrates approaches we use in powering the economic engines that generate success. Earlier this month, we broke ground on a large expansion for Dassault Falcon in Little Rock. While creating jobs, Dassault has a long-...

About the proposed power linePlains and Eastern Clean Line has proposed and has planned the construction of a 700-mile high voltage direct current power line stretching from the Oklahoma Panhandle to Memphis, Tenn. The 600-kilovolt line will pass through Pope County and have the capacity to move 3.5 gigawatts of power, equivalent to the output of five or six coal-fired power plants. Similar projects are in progress to our north. The Grain Belt Express Line will pass throu...

‘Forty Chances’ — a fantastic bookMost people in America know the name Warren Buffett, because he is one of the richest people in the world. The last time I checked, he was listed third by Forbes Magazine with a fortune of $65 billion. What many people may not know is that he and his late wife, Susan, reared a terrific family that consisted of Howard, Susie and Peter. While reading a fantastic book titled “Forty Chances: Finding Hope in a Hungry World” written by his first son...

Use mercenaries to fight ISIS?On his Fox News show Monday night, Bill O’Reilly suggested using mercenaries to fight the Islamic State (ISIS) instead of U.S. ground forces, which President Obama has repeatedly vowed not to deploy. The use of mercenaries is as old as warfare itself. Alexander the Great used them. King George III hired German mercenaries to fight for the British in the American Revolution. Today mercenaries go by other names, like “contractor.” The president ...

Power of positive campaigningWith just under six weeks to the Nov. 4 Election Day, the pressure is on. With a Democratic sitting president with a low 44 percent approval rating, many Republican races across the nation are being run by tying the Democratic candidate to the president. In many cases, this might indeed create distaste for the Democratic candidate by the voters and lead to a Republican victory. But, with no clear path forward, who is to say that the voters won...

Asa vs. Ross: different, but not reallyThe race for U.S. Senate features two candidates of completely different ideologies, approaches, backgrounds and temperaments. If you believe that Sen. Mark Pryor is right, then you almost have to believe that Rep. Tom Cotton is wrong. The race for governor between former Rep. Asa Hutchinson and former Rep. Mike Ross? Not so much. State government, as opposed to D.C. politics, tends to force both parties to the center anyway, and that’s defini...

Who wants war?Some pundits are saying that President Obama has been floundering in his response to the ISIS crisis because public opinion polls show most Americans don’t want another war. In all my 84 years, I cannot recall a time when most Americans wanted war. That is something we should be proud of. But wars are not always optional. Even World War II -- which some have called “the good war” -- was not something that most Americans wanted. But the Japanes...

Opposition to Clean Line Transmission Line projectIn writing this letter the main objective is to inform people about the proposed HVDC ( High Voltage Direct Current) transmission line that a private company, Clean Line Energy Partners, LLC is attempting to install throughout Arkansas to Tennessee. Wind energy generated in the panhandle of Oklahoma by wind turbines (which haven’t been built yet) is to be transported by these lines to Tennessee. Clean Line doesn’t have one customer yet, no con...

Debate shows new fault lines in raceLITTLE ROCK — Usually overshadowed by a nationally watched Senate race that could decide which party controls that chamber, Arkansas’ gubernatorial hopefuls showed they have just as many jabs to throw at each other as they met for their first televised debate last week. Democrat Mike Ross and Republican Asa Hutchinson have appeared at dozens of forums and events for well over a year in their fight for Arkansas’ top office, and have mostly stuc...

Beebe to donate to ASUIt wasn’t really surprising that Mike Beebe would choose to donate his gubernatorial papers, other media and memorabilia to Arkansas State University, but his announcement Saturday made a small group of ASU insiders and supporters especially happy. Beebe graduated from ASU in 1968, served on the Board of Trustees and remains close to his alma mater. The announcement delighted members of the Save the Kays House Committee, formed early in 2012 w...

Police: Man caused $14,000 damage by doing doughnutsPolice said a Pennsylvania man caused more than $14,000 damage to several other vehicles when he took a dare to do a “doughnut” with his pickup truck in a bar parking lot. Police said 35-year-old Brett Whitmire’s truck kicked up damaging stones as it spun in a tight circle in the parking lot of the Beer Garden in Washington Township on Aug. 18. Butler County prosecutors told the Butler Eagle they’re willing to drop a felony criminal mischief c...

The First Punic WarHistory time, folks. I like Hannibal, son of Hamilcar Barca. If I hadn’t told you previously that he was a historical figure, you wouldn’t have believed me. His story has the makings of a fantasy novel, or perhaps and episode or three of Game of Thrones. It’s got...blood oaths, vengeance, monsters and a lot of bloodshed. Hannibal was from Carthage, a city on the Mediterranean, and his story is the story of the Punic Wars and the fall and event...

Building creativityLITTLE ROCK — A robot, named Nighthawk, whizzed around my conference room in the State Capitol last week. The machine spun on its four wheels while flashing its bright lights and stopping on a dime at my feet. It chased a ball around the room, tossing it and fetching it, even catapulting it to me from across the room. It entertained all of the adults in the room, including leaders from across this State. But they were not the ones who built Ni...

State highway bids total $231.5 millionLITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department opened bids for 46 projects totaling $231.5 million. After a review of the bids, if the Commission accepts all of them as submitted they would comprise the largest single bid opening in Arkansas history. It would surpass the previous high bid opening in November of 2012, when bids for $222.5 million of projects were opened. The recent bid opening included what likely will be the ...

Minimum wage increase in ballotLITTLE ROCK — Arkansas is one of 5 states this year where voters will be asked if minimum wage should be increased. Initiative 5 is one of two citizen-led initiatives to gather enough verified signatures to make it on the November ballot. This week, we will explain what this ballot measure entails. Next week, we will detail the other initiative which allows for the statewide sale of alcohol. Currently our minimum wage is $6.25 an hour. All emp...

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Arkansas House of RepresentativesThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Reader feedback: Selling, transporting and manufacturing alcohol throughout the state?The Courier conducted a website poll on the proposed alcohol sales amendment to be on the November general election ballot in Arkansas. Below are a sample of Facebook responses The Courier received on the subject. • I think it’s great that Arkansas is finally coming out of the Stone Age. I’d rather see someone drive a few blocks to get beer than drive 30 miles round trip and drink it on the way home. • The people of Pope County have already ma...

If I were the devilCONWAY — The famous baseball player Yogi Berra had many witty sayings called “Yogi-isms.” The one that I love is when he said, “When you come to a fork in the road — take it.” When we think about our nation today, from my perspective, we took the wrong fork. This fact is borne out by a media giant by the name of Paul Harvey who at one time was on 1,200 radio stations, 400 Armed Forces Network stations and in 300 newspapers. One of his most fam...

Smells and politicsAs a life-long, occasionally conscripted political volunteer, I've encountered my share of smells along the political way. Fried chicken in the summer at church picnics and BBQ on Fourth of July in Newnan, Georgia, (with the argument about which BBQ was better — Melear's or Sprayberry's). Then there was the smell of glue from the backs of the envelopes we were sending. (Yes, if there are enough freshly licked envelopes you can smell the sticky...